Reality Definition and 413 Threads

This report is mindblowing... Download the full report in pdf format http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/Report10_21_04.pdf

Hi, has anyone read "The Road To Reality" by Roger Penrose? It looks quite complicated if you browse through it but I started reading the book and in the preface Penrose says that in the first 17 chapter he develops and explains all the mathematics necessary for the rest of the book. Is this...

I just learned the scalar and vector potentials arising from the electric and magnetic fields have a physical reality in relation to quantum mechanical effects, such as the Aharonov-Bohm effect. Contrary to what I've learned from my course on electrodynamics (Griffiths) this sure must mean they...

I have in other threads assumed that the pessimists are correct and that peak oil is happening this decade. Do anyone have more information if this is correct? Can alternatives like tar sands, oil shale or abiogenic oil be dismissed? The peak-oil-this-decade theory is advocated here...

what defines an observer for reality to exist externally? (refer to Einstein) personally i am not convinced an observer must have conciousness (i am not sure about how Einstein defined it). what is consciousness anyway? i mean i believe i am consciouss, but it seems to me that there are...

Bush's "Reality is for suckers" presidency From "Without a Doubt" by Ron Suskind.

"The Road to Reality" By Penrose? i live in the US and decided to get this book off of amazon.com. i was wondering if anyone has read, or atleast skimmed (its pretty big) through it and would mind telling me if its a good buy(although if it isnt, its a little late now :-p). also, I am...

John married 10 people in one day. How could this be legal ? :confused: :

Hey Guys, I have read, Schrödinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality by John Gribbin and also "The Whole Shebang" by Timothy Ferris. I have also read a lot of books on Cosmology. What I'm looking for now is a book specifically on Quantum mechanics that is light on the math. (Only have a...

Whats the deal with halo 2 beta? I have heard random stories from just news about it being leaked to the actual beta version of halo 2 being leaked. If someone does know where one could find the beta version please email me or contact me somehow I am not sure if it would be appropriate...

Just follow the link and try:http://www.davidpbrown.co.uk/optical-illusions/missing-space-triangle.html There are a number of perceptional variants when the mind falls into the trap of measuring Geometric Forms.

I'm not a big fan of reality television. Especially the idiotic shows like For Love or Money or The Player. I do however watch Amazing Race. Have you ever been tempted to join as a contestant on reality TV show? What show would you be best fitted for? Sometimes when I'm watching...

A new super-cool book is "Race: The Reality of Human Differences," by Vincent Sarich and Frank Miele, 2004 (click here to read the whole book). Here are some interesting excerpts from the book: "Strong evidence in the case for race comes from examining the amount of variation actually...

On friday 23July Penrose new book came out "The Road to Reality" Three hour-and-half lectures he gave on separate evenings last October at Princeton are online and very likely share key ideas with the book. I will get the links for those lectures. The series was called something like...

I've heard this before, and was wondering what everybody thought of it: Your thoughts. Paden Roder

Whats up with the Top Schools? So.. what's up with all the top universities... has anyone here attended any of the top schools?... I am interested .. .mainly because of how MIT built so much preasure on its students... leading some to their death... Does anyone know how hard it actually...

I find discussing the beginning and continuation of the universe one of the more interesting aspects of physics. Also the fact nobody really has any concrete proof as to much of where the universe is going, its boundaries, its expansion. Alot of people have their own ideas or beliefs, and i'd...

Physical reality is not the “real” reality Physical reality makes it possible for us to react with each other, the mental functioning of our brains. The functioning. How do planets function? They do not think, but they do function. How would they function with each other without being...

Since the domestication of the hamster and similar creatures who demonstrate a proclivity for running in wheels that go nowhere and do nothing, mankind has dreamed of the day technology would evolve to the degree that this wasted energy could be tapped and turned into a useful source of power...

What exactly is a frame of reality? Is it 2d? What are some of its properities? I'm not sure if I'm asking this question in the correct way...I'm just having trouble with the concept.

quote from The New Quantum Universe by Hey, Walters: is that an accurate statement? does it imply that there's a complete non-link between even the simplest intuitive qualitative descriptions of quantum theory and the mathematics of it?

I've recently read a definition from an online encyclopaedia, where it states that some part of ultimate reality may be unknowable to us. This is the link to the page: http://www.internet-encyclopedia.org/wiki.php?title=Ultimate_reality Anyways, my question is: do you believe that...

From; http://wspg.blogspot.com/ “Public Forum - Donna Mulhearn: Life in Occupied Iraq Monday June 14th – 7pm Rooty Hill Uniting Church 86 Rooty Hill Rd North, Rooty Hill After living through the war on Iraq as a human shield, and returning to work with orphaned kids, Donna Mulhearn...

After some sixty plus years of observation, I'm starting to believe that every single action is destine to happen based on any number of prior events leading up to that point in time. And, we have no control over the outcome. The other day I was doing a thought experiment about "time" as...

Life on Mars is not in question anymore Check the fair report at http://mywebpages.comcast.net/extrasense ES

what is reality-even relativity gives bizarre answers: the mass of an object depends on its speed relative to another object and so does its length.Since objects in the real world are always moving at slightly different speeds from one instant of time to the next, relative to one another...

I was just wondering, that in an objective sense, the only thing wrong with a tortured death is the pain and possibly embarrasment one goes through before death. These are days and weeks at the most in almost all cases. So what I don't get, is how does tortured death, for example, taped...

must we define reality?? i get the impression that we all have an intuitive definition for ourselves. no matter what all the wise men have said, we somehow know our individual sense (definition) of reality. so, why don't we just discuss our individual views and stop trying to define a very...

I posted this thread in the math forum, but no one seems to know what I am talking about... since i heard dr sylvester gates say it and he specializes in superstring theory, maybe someone here can help me out.. im trying to understand the expression, "the more math makes sense, reality...

I have heard the expression, "the more math makes sense, reality doesnt... and the more reality makes sense, math doesnt". Can someone give an example of this expression? What does it mean?

Its has occurred to me for some time that there is a fine line between imagination and reality...i think the mistake people always make is with the need to classify an experience as either being an hallucination/aborition or something wholey real. Surely what we percieve as reality (whether...

as all observations and feelings are merely electrical impulses interpreted by my brain, who's to say any laws of physics really apply? who's to say I'm not a machine made of iron led to believe i am a man with a meat-computer in my head. who's to say I'm not in The Matrix (TM)?

Iraqis tell the reality of Iraq... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/3515884.stm Amazing that all of the Iraqis posting say it's better. The poll shows that most think it is bettter now than before. And yet MOST that are posting from outside of Iraq say they don't believe...

I have a Laymans understanding of this subject but here goes... I'm sitting now in my living room looking at the fireplace. My act of observation (photons bouncing of the electrons into my eyes) cause the wave function to collapse and create the reality of the fireplace. I now turn my back...

I disagree. Experimental agreement is not grounds for establishing a theory. There needs to be a reason, based on some principle, that can explain why these things are true. For example, if I am in a spaceship traveling the speed of light relativity says that I can not walk from one end of...

Does anyone know of other good, simple or well known metaphors for our relationship to reality besides Plato's allegory of the cave?

Hi, I just saw The Butterfly Effect in theaters yesterday after much much resistance... and i thought it was a GREAT movie... i don't know if the actual movie was great but the perspective on reality is what got me the most... In this movie, whenever he reads a passage from one of his...

how would our life be different if all fossil fuels suddenly disappeared ?

Someone posted the following at alt.atheism: How do you know what happens after death? Have you been in that position? If we are the rational skeptics we ought to be, we will doubt that our perception of 'fleshiness', or materialism in general, is a complete and perfect perception. If we...

riddle me this! Simply asked, is our personal reality unique and separate from the mass reality while participating in mass events? As an extension, are there an infinite number of realities co-existing simultaneously and creating the observable mass reality?

Is Ouija Board real?

Reality&Energy I have certain beleives on reality and i was wondering about others view on exactly what reality is. i believe that what we see has reality is a physical representation of energy and that when one can do flips or any other physical or mental ability that is "imposiable" is...

Would anyone like to share ideas on what makes something real other than what our senses tell us to believe? Or are we completely dependant on our senses so that even if there was an alternate reality we would never wittness it as it really is. I know this sounds like something straight out of...

Another post has been discussing standards used in measuring an observable. We attach a number as a value to use to create other numbers. So I thought I would open a discussion on the standard or reality of Zero. If Zero is a standard but not a reality it would have to be the most...

'One thing I have learned in a long life: that all our science, measured against reality, is primitive and childlike - and yet it is the most precious thing we have.' Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

I watch and see this continual barage of foolish conversation upon fired sand structures, but no one knows the sand or addresses it. From the sand comes all things made. Like from the water or from the air. I challange any of you on this forum all of you inlcuding you outside this forum or to...

"Reality", Mathematics, and Computer Software I believe this thread belongs in the Philosophy of Science and Mathematics section rather than in the "Software" section, because it deals with, well, philosophy of science and mathematics. First of all, what IS mathematics? Is it not a way of...

What is reality?? Dear reader can anyone explain me what is reality? -benzun please, explain in simple words

malai5 suggested to write down "what do i need to know at this time?" and see what floats in. i saw no harm in this so i did. and i began auto-writing. I'm not making a definite claim about the source of this writing except that it is probably something very personal to me. perhaps it is my...

This discussion originally arose in the thread "The answer to the 'Does God exist' question from Human Practice." I'm posting it in a new thread because by now it's a pretty deep tangent to the original thread and it's also an issue worth discussing in its own right. I am not arguing for...